Cadillac CTS Coupe Concept

Cadillac exterior design director John Manoogian II can't contain himself. He talks about the production CTS coupe and how it will hardly vary from the \"CTS coupe concept,\" the unmitigated hit of the North dweller International Auto Show (Detroit), without adding the requisite, \"If we were to build it.\" And so what's a poor Cadillac P.R. guy to do, but to say it hasn't been prefabricated official?

If you read Motor Trend, you undergo Cadillac has been kicking around the intent of a new coupe since before the doddering Eldorado was sent to that great Cadillac Ranch in the sky. And you undergo that this stylish \"coupe d'etat,\" designed much more recently than those early ideas, is set for a 2010 model year launching probably some 18 months from now, alongside a Euro-centric CTS wagon-er, estate/shooting break. (One insider says, if you like the coupe, \"Wait'll you wager the wagon.\" Wait until when? That CTS wagon won't make its entry at Geneva and, in fact, hasn't been scheduled for any auto show so far this season.)

Manoogian credits designer Bob Munson for drawing the sketches that led to the coupe construct most two eld ago, as work was patch up on the 2008 Motor Trend Car of the Year, the Cadillac CTS sedan.

\"Bob had done a sketch of a two-door,\" Manoogian says. \"And everyone's reaction immediately was, 'There isn't a market for two-doors, why would we want to do that?' We said, 'Well, let's just kind of provide it a shot.' So we did a scale model, supported on Bob's sketch.\" With organisation honcho Ed Welburn's prompting, that led to a full-size clay. \"So we did a full-size clay, took it discover on the area one day for Mr. Lutz, and he came discover and said, 'Wow! That's pretty cool!' Then we made arrangements to exhibit Mr. Wagoner as well, and everyone agreed: we can't give not to do this car.\"

Here's the real kicker, the sign that GM indeed has hit a new design renaissance: Manoogian and Cadillac design director Clay Dean swear the CTS coupe concept is virtually same from Munson's example drawings. Original drawing-to-production is the type of thing GM design hasn't been able to do since the days of Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell.

\"When we started with the scale model, to what you see right in front of you,\" Manoogian says, \"is identical. Our mission was, take that scale model and do a full-size car.\"